Rating: 
Summary: What, no mention of the Iron Brigade?
Review: I was going to knock it down 1 star for no mention of the Iron Brigade, the famous Black Hats of the 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan, and the 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin. They had the best head gear of any fighting group in the Civel War, and fought in most of the major battles in the East.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of What Television & Film Can Offer
Review: What can one say that hasn't already been offered? Ken Burns' series is probably the best program I've ever seen on television. I know this says a lot, but I honestly believe it. His film should be required viewing of every student of American history. Visually powerful and emotionally unforgetable, it's a superb and comprehensive overview of the greatest war in our history. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Documentary Masterpiece
Review: The film is an absolute masterpiece. Other reviewers can point out how great an influence it has had on other filmmakers. For myself, the film changed--in some surprising ways--how I see much of the world. There's a Bugs Bunny cartoon with a nonsense song about "peeping through the knothole of Grandpa's wooden leg." After seeing this film, I knew why Grandpa had a wooden leg. When I was younger, in the 1960s, I couldn't comprehend the bitter animosity that many Southern politicians still felt against the North. But when this film showed me the chimneys of ruined buildings in Georgia, I realized: the angry Southern senators of my day had grown up surrounded by the relics of this ruinous war. How could it fail to affect their view of the world? I've watched it, all the way through, perhaps half a dozen times. Every time, it is profoundly moving. The DVD is a bit of a disappointment, if only because the remastered audio track is sometimes out of sync. The original audio track is also on the DVD, and seems not to be affected. The supplemental material is interesting, but a bit thin. Buy it for the film, not the supplements.
Rating: 
Summary: A couple of technical gliches
Review: I just received and viewed my DVD copy of "The Civil War." The remastering of this epic is wonderful and it was as good as I remember it from the PBS series. The ONLY fault I found was that in some of the narative with James Symington and Shelby Foote the soundtrack and the movement of the mouth were not in sync. This was most noticable on disc 5. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just my copy?
Rating:
Summary: Probably the best Civil War documentary ever produced!
Review: The CLASSIC! Looking back, Ken Burns' work from the late 80's that brought this production together was monumental for the time and probably will be most remembered as his best work. What makes this DVD set different from the huge VHS pack released 10 years ago is that it now has interviews with key historians like Shelby Foote that talk about the making of the production and their thoughts then and now. This work is monumental and probably won't seriously be tackled for a long time by another director and we're lucky to have Ken Burns handle this huge task of reporting the entire Civil War. This DVD set is put together very well and is probably the most well rounded documentary ever assembled on the subject. It has nearly 11 hours of material and is definately worth the money. Like all of Burns' work, everything is always done very well and high-class. I highly recommend this set!!
Rating:
Summary: A most excellent introduction to a key piece of history
Review: Ken Burns' "The Civil War" has been nit-picked for various offenses of minutia in the reviews here. Virtually none of the criticisms are worthy to deny the quality of this work. Many seem to be the automatic criticism given to any work which achieves popular success. "The Civil War" is an excellent introduction to this very important episode in American history. It is presented to the viewer wrapped with several techniques that make the material more palatable to the viewers. The music is the primary technique that one encounters. The "Lorena" theme that flows throughout the film is a hauntingly pleasant tune that provides continuity. Other, appropriately-placed tunes provoke the emotions for the event being described. This is a technique used in most films, but rarely done so well as in "The Civil War". The choice of narrators for the various characters in the war was also done remarkably well. The slightly soft and solemn voice used for Robert E. Lee promoted the grand illusions that so many have for this very human and fallible man. The main narrator for the film possessed a clear voice that was easy to listen to for long periods of time. Interesting, tangential elements like the 104-year-old lady added much to the watchability of the film. She recited a poem from memory of such length that one wouldn't expect a person of advanced age to recall it. Shelby Foote's occasional unexplainable humor was also interesting to watch. He would recite some simple comment by a soldier and then chuckle about it, leaving you wondering how he had extracted so much humor from that simple statement. It was quite amusing. Historical revisionists object to the portrayal of slavery in the movie. In actuality, Burns didn't give much of a view of slavery at all. However, slavery had such a key role in the war that it could not be concealed to the level that the revisionists desire. While neither side in the war had emancipation as a major motivating factor initially, the slavery issue had a massive and overwhelming effect on the outcome. Any less attention to slavery by Burns would have invalidated his work. Slavery is an issue that many have tried to defuse, but none have been successful. Now, they just try to historically conceal it. Ken Burns' movie makes their job just a little more difficult. I could go on for some time about "The Civil War". I have owned the set for some years and have watched it repeatedly. There is a companion book that provides additional information, and references for further reading to cover parts of the war that could not be addressed in a movie of this length. Being a long-time Civil War buff that has finally had the opportunity to live in Virginia where much of it happened, I am reading everything I can find about the subject and visiting battle sites. This movie is one of my favorite sources of events that I can further investigate.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best thing that has ever been on television
Review: I first watched this documentary four years ago. Sice that time I have found every other form of television to be unworth my time. This is the only warning I would give to someone before they watch THE CIVIL WAR by Ken Burns. If I could share this documentary with anyone who has not seen it I would feel that I could open ones eyes to an era that had probably been either long dead or never seen. I encourage you to watch and be moved. I have shed tears so often at the end of the gettysburg address I not sure anyone would believe me. Stated without equivacation, this is the best thing that has ever been on television.
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Summary: The Architype for Civil War Documentaries
Review: To say that this masterful creator of fine documentary films has set the standard for all future film efforts on this subject is, by now, 12 years after it first appeared, redundant. He has given us a film which should be required viewing by every american. As historian Steven Ambrose has so often admonished us, freedom is not free. It has been purchased with the blood of countless thousands. To forget this or, what is worse, to be unmoved by it, is beneath contempt. As Shelby Foote said in the film, you cannot hope to understand why we, as americans, are who we are without understanding this terrible conflict. Mr. Burns has shown us the military, social, and above all, the personal consequences of the war on those who fought it and on those they left behind. I'm sure that this film has motivated many to explore the war in depth through books, family archives and other sources of information. Hopefully, when PBS airs it again beginning September 22, 2002, many more will want to explore the war further; perhaps to learn what part their families may have played in the history of their country. Who would not want to do this? It is fascinating and rewarding; and, in my opinion, should be considered the duty of every citizen who loves his country.
Rating:
Summary: This is YOUR history!
Review: The first time I saw this series I was enraptured. I was mesmerized by the simplicity of photographs, music and melodic narration that were seamlessly merged into a heartbreaking, yet beautiful vision of our past. The Civil War seems so long ago, but in doing my family genealogy, I realize that it wasn't. Many things have changed, yet some have not changed at all. These were real people, real lives, real emotions. We were devasted with the attacks on our country by terrorists from other countries on 9/11. Imagine how your ancestors felt about the attacks from within their country by their neighbors, friends and families divided by misbegotten notions. This series is a triumph of the human spirit.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothng to recommend it
Review: There's nothing new, nothing original, and certainly nothing very informative if you've read more than two general histories. There's no technical novelties, no dramatic moments, no real excitement. The only point to this film was to make money for Ken Burns, and that it did. Save your money and effort if you can already put the Civil War in the corrct third of a century.
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